The day India was born

Context: The Constitution’s endurance is rooted in ability and commitment to the project of expanding freedom.

Characteristics of the Indian Constitution

• Drafting conversations at founding meant that India would commit to making reparations for the structural injustices of caste that permeated society. 
• Unique in approach for making reparations for historical discrimination on grounds of caste that defines the present and future of so many Indians. 
• Provision of prohibited discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth also meant that the new nation embraced those who had been left out of the fold of citizenship for so long.
• It has become an instrument for silenced minorities to express themselves, to have injustices redressed and in turn owe their allegiance to their Constitution.
• India’s Constitution has endured because its founders: Its interpreters and litigants in the form of social movements have all ensured that it is used to consistently expand the freedoms of citizens. 
• Constitution’s morality has stood firmly with disadvantaged castes, women, and religious minorities: Like LGBT Indians have unanimously found for their freedoms and for a full equality.

Challenges in constituting Constitution

• Dual-purpose Constituent Assembly was swamped by the challenges of Partition while simultaneously governing a new post-colonial nation, the constituent-parliament spent the years 1946-1949 drafting a constitution that has endured. 
• Constituent Assembly was boycotted by some members who would eventually move to Pakistan.
  • Assembly would be a 210-member body at the initial sessions: Deft statesmanship, not rage was displayed in response to the boycott. 
• Juristic concerns: Partition was the result of communalism. The Constitution have specifically accounted for crimes and ideologies that were communal in nature.

Way Forward: As Indian Constitution turns 72 years old, let the Constitution’s endurance do not take for granted. In fact, enduring constitutions are the exception, and failing constitutions are the global norm.

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